Over the next few weeks we will be updating you about the latest events from TBI, focusing on the collapse of this language chain in Indonesia’s second biggest city, Surabaya. In this post we want to start with TBI West Surabaya, a disastrous TBI franchise school which has gone bankrupt in recent weeks. We have been contacted by the owner of this former business and he has told us the sorry story of how TBI seduced him with big promises which turned out to be lies. He told us how the regular TBI criminals and fraudsters such as Reza Suriansha and Windi Ramelan told him some big lies about how much money he would make by buying a TBI franchise. He believed them and spent 600 million rupiah on buying the ruinous TBI name. Sadly for the franchisee, he knew of our blog but thought it was a hoax. This was a story told to him by the greedy, cunning Windi Ramelan. He said it was a hoax from a former “disgruntled employee” who was defaming the good name of TBI. The owner was tricked by these silver-tongued devils and bought the franchise. Then, almost immediately, the problems began.

For almost 15 years now, TBI has been attracting new franchisees with promises of riches. A few of them (for example, TBI Cibubur) are successful but many more (eg. TBI Kelapa Gading (former branch), TBI Semarang and TBI Cengkareng have gone bankrupt. The TBI name is little-known and so it attracts few customers. The franchisees are basically spending 600 million for a business name with low brand recognition. They have no textbooks or computer software which they wrote themselves, so you spend 600 million and get very little. Just a bit of merchandise and a few banners which are next to worthless. Furthermore, the managers and ‘experts’ are often better at stealing or embezzling money than running schools. Reza, for example, is a well-known thief who used to get suitcases of money from TBI Bandung delivered to him by Australian con man and sociopath, Luke Preece. This is the business knowledge which you pay good money to get.

Well, how did it go for TBI West Surabaya? Within a year, it went bankrupt and it has ruined the lives of the owner and his family members. The school has closed and more will follow (see next update). Like so many other people who believed in the liars and con artists of TBI, his fortunes have been ruined and he has been cast into despair. There is a lesson here for anyone thinking of giving money to Windi or Reza. These men are crooks, criminals, thieves and liars. When the owner told his problems to Windi, Windi laughed and called him a bad manager. The owner of TBI West Surabaya trusted this wolf in sheep’s clothing and was eaten by him. Mr Windi is a liar, a scoundrel and a back-stabber. Please do not invest in this failing, incompetent company.